There were quite a few erroneous reports regarding the seawall construction happening outside Taylor Swift's Rhode Island estate recently, and it began with one writer. Instead of defending himself, the writer did exactly the opposite -- he apologized.

New Year's Day often provokes a desire to begin the year with a clean slate, and that's exactly what's happened with David Collins, who made the false report. He wrote a rather scathing piece in Connecticut newspaper the Day, stating that Swift was improperly creating a seawall in front of her massive beachfront house in Rhode Island, also accusing her of limiting the public beach access.

Unfortunately, Collins' story fueled the fire for lots of media backlash against Swift -- which was not only extremely biting, but also rather incorrect. Thankfully, the reporter decided to clear things up once and for all.

"Because I would like to start the New Year off well, I want to begin with an apology," Collins writes. "I'm sorry, Taylor Swift, for the scorched-earth worldwide news coverage on gossip pages that I apparently triggered with a column over the weekend, about the work on the seawall at your Watch Hill house."

He went on to call out some of the harshest articles, which were indeed sensational, prompting him to write, "Yikes. Who reads this stuff?"

Continued Collins, "I feel badly about this because I suspect you know very little about the work being done. I'm sure you've got other things to focus on."

In the lengthy letter, he finished up by saying, "Anyway, Happy New Year, Taylor. I hope you have fun back in Watch Hill for the summer of 2014, even though it's not Connecticut. We'll try to leave you alone." You can read the full letter here.

For those wondering what really is happening around Swift's estate, the purpose of the construction project is simply to repair the seawall that was damaged due to Hurricane Sandy. And, in fact, Swift is prohibited from impending any public right of way to the ocean or lateral access along the shoreline.

Just as Collins said, the songstress does have other things to focus on, including an upcoming album that will most likely be coming out sometime in 2014!